Pneumonia vaccine reducing pediatric admissions

In Tennessee, the introduction in 2010 of a new pneumococcal vaccine for infants and young children coincides with a 27 percent decline in pneumonia hospital admissions across the state among children under age 2. That’s the lead finding of a report from investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report was timed to coincide with the sixth annual observance of World Pneumonia Day on Nov. 12. The recent decline in Tennessee comes on top of an earlier 43 percent decline across the United States coinciding with the introduction in 2000 of the first pneumococcal vaccine for children under 2. Pneumococcus (streptococcus pneumoniae) is considered a leading cause of childhood pneumonia. The earlier vaccine (7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine) provides protection against the seven most common strains of the bacterium, while the newer vaccine protects against 13. “We...